Sirotablog

David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. David writes about political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties.

  • September 27, 2007 1:14 PM

    Pelosi, Pushing New NAFTAs, Takes Marching Orders from David Broder

    In demanding that Democrats who campaigned against NAFTA now vote for a package of new NAFTAs, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted that Democrats need to "take yes for an answer," according to CongressDaily. Pelosi is now on record literally plagiarizing David Broder's columns. You may recall that it was Broder who 4 months ago wrote a screed for the Washington Post demanding Democrats pass the new NAFTAs. His screed was headlined "Can Democrats Take Yes for an Answer?"

    Pelosi is now on record literally plagiarizing David Broder's columns. You may recall that it was Broder who 4 months ago wrote a screed for the Washington Post demanding Democrats pass the new NAFTAs. His screed was headlined "Can Democrats Take Yes for an Answer?"

    There is a tiny silver lining to all this. Knowing that the Speaker of the House clearly does not listen to labor, environmental, human rights, anti-poverty and religious groups who oppose the deal, nor does she listen to her own rank-and-file Democrats who ran against NAFTA; nor does she listen to the American people who voted against NAFTA in the 2006 election - at least we know who Pelosi does listen to: David Broder.

    And so, as people like Pelosi pat themselves on the back for making Washington pundits like David Broder smile, America is once again left to savor mere scraps just months after a "change" election. Here's the Hill Newspaper on the courageous Democrats valiantly fighting the good fight:

    "Rep. Mike Michaud (D-ME) seemed resigned to defeat. 'I’m a realist. A Democratic administration gave us NAFTA. There’s going to be a Democratic Congress that will give us the Peru trade deal,' he said, adding that there was little time in the caucus meeting to discuss the deal. Rep. Dale Kildee (D-Mich.) said he hoped the working group could just convince enough Democrats to oppose the deal so that if it were approved, it would be with minority support in the Democratic Party." (emphasis added)

    That's what we get - we get to pray that a bare majority of Democrats doesn't sell out their election 2006 promises to Wall Street's wishes. At least we have the Michauds and the Kildees, I guess, but man, this is pretty rough to watch.

    Posted by David Sirota
    Permalink | Comments (5) | del.icio.us | digg
    Tags: free trade

Discussion

  • spankinrankin [TypeKey Profile Page] :

    I think I'll just go back to voting Republican like I did in 2003 against Musgrove and once again shoot my eye out. I'd much rather be stuck with a party I know what's coming against me rather than a sneaky devil party that pretends "populism" only to go sellout. The Democrats are no different from corporations who cry "no government" but then turn around and act like they're the "government" against their employees and/or customers !

    Posted on September 27, 2007 2:01 PM
  • 2Truthy [TypeKey Profile Page] :

    And why did so many Democrats vote for Nader when Gore was running?

    Nader's message back then rings louder now than ever before: Dems increasingly want a big, fat piece of that corporate trough pie before this whole global haouse of cards collapses and Pelosi is right in front of that line to sell out tens of millions of our middle class, professional jobs with horseshit foreign trade and policy deals

    Read Alan Blinder

    http://www.able2know.org/forums/about95302.html

    Who among the Dem candidates (declared and undeclared) are NOT for selling out our jobs?

    Pelosi is a friend to high tech execs who are committed to driving down wages and selling off our jobs. This is no longer limited just to tech but also includes the financial, paralegal, media and health sectors. What's left? Naomi Klein's message in The Shock Doctrine applies to the middle class job sell out

    http://tootruthy.blogspot.com/2007/09/shock-doctrine-rise-of-disaster.html

    Time to demand true economic and labor reforms from corporate and political "leaders".

    Where are the MoveOn ads to demand economic and labor reform from politicians like Pelosi who hang with the corporate, two-class frat boy Amerika while they gleefully wring their hands like Simon Legree as they kick the competing American middle class straight out of the castle with horse trading shitty products and foreign 'policy' from China and India for our jobs.

    As Klein's shock doctrine thesis suggests, wars really do keep most otherwise conscientious Democrats eyes off the real problems at home: disappearing jobs and eroding infrastructures. Thanks for writing about this, David.

    Posted on September 27, 2007 3:09 PM
  • GrantBurkeVT [TypeKey Profile Page] :

    David, first it was Baucus and now it's Pelosi. Look, it doesn't matter if you're wondering about a "centrist" red state Democrat aka DLC hack or a supposedly "liberal" blue state Democrat such as Nancy Pelosi. They're all going to go pro-sellout everytime push comes to shove. Be an Independent and breathe some fresh air of relief. Yes, I may look like a fucking hippie for being too much of a loose cannon strongly recommending progressives to go Independent but face it. The Democrats are getting worse and choosing to commit political suicide by kicking sand in their base's faces !

    Posted on September 27, 2007 5:46 PM
  • waltc [TypeKey Profile Page] :

    Yep Nadar's message in retrospect was dead on, there isn't a lick of difference between the parties anymore at least on significant items like trade, economic and foreign policy.

    I think Nadar will do pretty good in '08 especially if his opponent is Hillary.

    BTW the reason Pelosi doesn't listen to Democrats is simple, she's a K Street bitch and is in a pure blue district which makes her invulnerable to being primaried. She'll probably die in office like Thurmond.

    Move-on could rattle her cage and make her relent if they ran the right kind of ads. But Move-on seems to be composed of the same sort of nit nats that run Dkos and they don't go after crooked Democrats or care about economic issues.

    Posted on September 27, 2007 9:49 PM
  • maxpayne [TypeKey Profile Page] :

    Peter Schweizer, despite being a RAYGUN hack, is unfortunately correct in his book "Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy" when he describes how Pelosi claims to be pro-labor union and pro-environment when in fact, her own restaurants are STRICTLY non-union and her own vineyard is chalk full of environmental violations. Besides, she voted YES on NAFTA back in 1993. Pelosi hasn't really changed. It's just that her inconsistent hypocrisy has blown its cover just like the "conservatives".

    Posted on September 28, 2007 7:38 AM

Join the Discussion

Post a comment